Time to branch out? Trees offer alternative investment as property market wobbles
- Forestry assets such as agarwood plantations are becoming more popular with investors, say experts at property exhibition
- However, investors need to be extra cautious because alternative investments tend not to be subjected to the same stringent regulations as financial assets
Looking to branch out into a different type of property investment? Perhaps you can’t see the wood for the trees in the current market?
Forestry assets are an increasingly popular alternative to bricks-and-mortar, particularly with the worsening outlook for real estate, according to some experts at the recent SMART Investment and International Property Expo in Hong Kong. But, like all investments, they are not without their risks.
Forestry assets have outperformed almost everything else over the last 100 years
“Green investments are on the rise both in popularity and the returns they offer. Forestry assets have outperformed almost everything else over the last 100 years,” said Gerard McGuirk, sales director at Asia Plantation Hong Kong, one of the exhibitors.
“In the last seven years we have been here in Hong Kong, we have seen great interest – especially in the last three years – as people become more aware of global warming and the future of the planet.”
Established in 2011, Asia Plantation Hong Kong is the local arm of Asia Plantation Capital, which owns and manages agarwood plantations in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia.
In the last three years investors in plantations of agarwood trees, from which the valuable perfume oil oud is extracted, saw an average investment return of above 8 per cent, according to McGuirk.